Angola detains journalist over report on mass fainting

New York, August 5, 2011--Angolan authorities should
explain Tuesday's arrest and incommunicado detention of a radio journalist for
reporting on a nationwide wave of mass fainting of people, the
Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

"The
arrest of journalist Adão Tiago highlights the
Angolan government's obsession with controlling information and dictating
the narrative instead of focusing on addressing a very serious national
crisis," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "We call on
Angolan authorities to explain Tiago's detention immediately."

Since
April, more than 800 people, mostly teenage schoolchildren, have fainted after
complaining of sore throats and eyes, shortness of breath, and coughs, the
Catholic Church-run station Radio Ecclesia reported. Amid news reports of
unidentified toxic substances, Interior Minister Sebastião Martins ordered investigations into the
cause last week, and on Tuesday, Rui Falcão Pinto de Andrade, a spokesman for
the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola,asked citizens who were able to help address the problem in any way to come
forward, according to state media reports.

The same day, four police
officers
in the capital, Luanda, picked up Radio
Ecclesia reporter Adão Tiago over a July 29 report about the fainting of some
20 students at a local school where he teaches English, according to local journalists.
Tiago was arrested without a warrant in front of his students, driven to a
police station without explanation, and detained incommunicado for 23 hours, he
later told CPJ. A police interrogator questioned the journalist about why he
reported the incident, he said. According to CPJ research, Radio Ecclesia works
under intense government pressure and
self-censorship.

On the day
of Tiago's arrest, Rui Pires, a physician working for the health ministry,
blamed the fainting on "mass hysteria" and sensational media reporting,
according to news reports.